Expat Community > Hungary

peddington
Joined 2013
Posts: 382

Language...

10 years ago

Greetings! One of course can't draw a parallel between the US and Hungary other than Hungary is roughly the size of Florida. The comparison kind of stops right about there. Hungarians are proud people as they should be and regardless of their "size" their "Magyar" history goes back farther than almost 300 years the US can claim. Yet Hungary is fairly insignificant because it's size, population and it's "middle of the road" politics. It takes it's EU/NATO benefits and still try to stay "cozy" with it's former occupiers. (But who can blame them!) Only a few years ago Mr. Gyurcsany and his cabinet sang the "Internationale" on TV reminiscent of the "good old communist years". Hungary as you would expect adopted practices and policies from European countries including Germany and Russia. They foster "bureaucracy" because it keeps many government employees gainfully employed and privately they tell you is because "if it is this way it is harder for people to cheat". Of course if you "know people" everything is easy and there is no 30 day waiting period for anything. Many non speakers of course don't know this because they never have a "honest" dialog with a citizen but they think they know because they lived here a few years and spoke to a few "English speaking" Hungarians and yes they have the Internet. Boy do they miss the mark! Back to the point originally mentioned; the Hungarian language is very rich and expressive. Truly a "literary" language but true enough not many speak it. Of course it would be a shame if it disappeared as anything that is part of our culture. Sadly though more and more foreign words are spoken/intermixed by media, "celebs" and politicians thinking that makes them more "sophisticate". This may signal the "end" of a language more than any other in my opinion!

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